


Getting Smaller

by misumaru



Category: Show By Rock!! - All Media Types
Genre: Crane Game Frustration, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 06:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12150255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misumaru/pseuds/misumaru
Summary: The arcade's star prize ShuuZo plushie is too cute for Rom to resist - too bad it's locked behind a crane game. Still... How hard can it be?





	Getting Smaller

**Author's Note:**

> A sort-of follow up to The Collector, although you don't need to have read that to read this. Written for the "challenge" square on the 15_kisses Aquarius table. Big hugs to LdyBastet for the beta! :)
> 
> Disclaimer: All characters owned by Sanrio.

It was one thing to run into your ex after you’d split up. Awkward, sure, and always painful to find out how they’d moved on since it ended, but in most cases a one-off deal. It was another thing entirely for them to become popular almost overnight and their face plastered over just about every billboard and screen in the city.

Rom had learned to cope with it, mostly. Apart from the occasional longing glance at the billboard that dominated the skyline, he kept his head down, avoided watching chat shows, and fast-forwarded through any and all advert breaks whenever possible. It seemed to be working, even if life did seem to insist on throwing the two of them together, and it was only by chance that he’d looked up on his way home from the office and seen the giant poster highlighting the arcade’s latest star prize.

They’d… They’d made a plushie Shuu?

Maybe that wasn’t so weird. Hadn’t Maple been going on about plushies recently? That they were the new hot band fad or something? Not that Rom had really been paying attention. And there was that disturbingly realistic plastic figure of Shuu from the ice pop giveaway last summer that Rom had more than one copy of still shamefully stashed away… 

So. Not weird. And maybe he could have just grit his teeth and walked away, quietly fuming over yet another place he had to avoid, if only it hadn’t been so… so…

_Adorable._

Rom peeked through the doors to make sure no-one he knew was lurking inside. Yaiba and Crow loved to hang out in arcades, after all, although Rom was pretty sure he remembered Yaiba saying he had a late shift that day and Crow wasn’t likely to go on his own. Once the coast was officially clear, Rom let his feet guide him past the garish displays and blinking lights to the cabinet that held his prize. The crane game holding the stuffed replicas of Trichronika had been given pride of place in the centre of the arcade, but while there were plenty of plushies of the twins covering the base of the cabinet, there was only one Shuu, sitting on a little throne at the back above the others. The bastard even had a crown! The machine was already occupied by a pig myumon trying her luck and Rom pressed himself to the side of a less popular cabinet and tried not to make it obvious he was watching. What if she won the Shuu right in front of him? Would the arcade restock him right away? Why was he even worrying about this? It quickly proved to be a moot point as the girl using the machine gave up in disgust, the claw clumsily closing around the toy she’d been aiming for and letting it slip from its grasp as it started to rise. She didn’t even stay long enough to see it hover over the prize slot and mockingly pretend to drop its empty payload. 

Seeing his chance, Rom rushed over to block the machine and checked his wallet. Mostly notes and a bunch of coins… He studied the rules on the machine. One coin gave you three attempts, so… Would that be enough? How hard could this thing be, anyway?

How naïve. Again and again, the toy evaded his grasp. The angle was wrong, or the claws couldn’t quite close around it properly, or Rom’s hand would slip and let the crane go too early, leaving its claws snapping at nothing. One time, he almost had it - as if by sheer luck, he managed to pluck the tiny Shuu from his throne and lift him into the air. It only made it halfway before the crane seemed to shudder, grip suddenly loosening and dropping the Shuu on to the pile of Kais and Rikus below. Rom wanted to cry. Or maybe just grab the machine and shake it from sheer frustration. Hell, maybe he’d have better luck getting something out of it that way? The thought was kind of tempting…

He sighed and checked his wallet again – his supply of coins had been completely depleted and he wasn’t even sure how it had happened. Maybe that was a sign he needed to stop? Why did he need to waste his money over a stupid toy? The real Shuu turned up often enough to make his life miserable as it was, did he really need another, admittedly tiny and adorable, reminder? Mind made up, Rom turned around, all ready to stride away, only to nearly walk into an arcade employee. How long she’d been standing there trying to get his attention, Rom had no idea.

“Shit, sorry!”

“It’s fine!” The poor employee flinched and backed a few steps away from Rom, apparently still worried about being run over. “Sir, is everything ok? It’s just that some of the other patrons have complained about yelling coming from here…”

He’d been yelling? Somehow, Rom had been so focused on, or maybe just frustrated by, the machine, he hadn’t even noticed, and yet when he looked down, his tail was all fluffed up… “Uh… Sorry about that too. I’m about to go, but… Hey, listen, are there any change machines around here?”

The employee nodded and pointed over to a small alcove, looking like she regretted it as she did so. Rom ran over and fed one of his notes into the machine, scooping up the small rain of coins that fell out as quickly and carefully as he could manage before running back to the crane game.

One more shot. He was going to give it one more shot and that would be the end of it – plushie or no pushie. After all, if he couldn’t grab the Shuu when he was sitting at the very top of the pile, that’d just prove the whole thing was rigged, right? He fed a coin into the slot and watched the counter light up with his remaining three tries, then hit the button. 

The first go was a disaster, his fist slipping off the controls far too quickly and missing the doll by a mile. Rom growled at the machine, watching the empty claw rattle back into position, all ready to-

“You’re far too tense for this, you know that?”

Rom blinked. That was it. The crane had finally driven him to madness and now he was imagining the toy _talking_ to him. Except the voice had come from behind…

A slender arm wrapped itself around Rom’s waist, while a hand came up and settled over Rom’s own, preventing him from pressing down on the button just yet. “Follow my lead.”

Doing as he was told, Rom followed his unseen his helper’s instruction, guiding the crane into perfect position over the tiny Shuu. Rom watched with bated breath as the crane plucked it from the pile and shakily dragged it over to the prize slot. It was a close thing, the toy gradually slipping further and further down the claws’ grasp with each jerky movement, but it held on for just long enough. Before Rom could claim his prize, however, his helper snatched it away and held it up next to his face, winking as he did so. “Do I really look like this?”

“No.” Rom grabbed the toy back out of the real Shuu’s hand. “He’s cuter.”

“Oh, Rom, so mean! Still, I suppose I should be flattered, considering how long you spent trying to win me?”

Noticing the faint glow of street lights coming from outside, Rom winced. Shuu had a point for once – hadn’t it been light outside when he’d walked in here? “What about you? This isn’t normally your kind of place.”

“The same reason as you, actually!” As Shuu reached behind his back, Rom fully expected to be presented with another copy of the toy he’d spent so long winning – it was the kind of vanity he expected from Shuu these days – but was instead met with his own plushie replica as Shuu brought it round with a flourish. Shuu pressed the two toys heads together, making a kissy noise as he did so. “Chu. Don’t they make a cute couple?”

Rom was too shocked to reply. When the hell had they made a toy of _him_? Shuu took pity on him as he tried to stutter out a response, pointing to the other side of the arcade. “They’re over there. Your whole band, in fact. You didn’t know? You really ought to talk to that egg manager of yours!”

Rom merely nodded. Yeah, he would need to talk to Maple, and maybe pay more attention the next time the topic of merchandising came up instead of yelling and walking out. He took the miniature Rom from Shuu’s hand and held the two plushies up together, running his thumbs over the stitches in the fabric. At least he didn’t seem to be significantly poorer quality than the Shuu – that was something, at least.

“Shall we go somewhere and let them get acquainted?”

“No, I’m going home.”

“Not even after all my help?” Shuu took both toys from Rom’s unresisting hands and held them up to both sides of his face again, beaming. “Besides, do you really want to separate these two cuties so soon? Look at their little faces!”

And that was exactly why Rom hated running into Shuu unexpectedly – somehow, Shuu always, _always_ , managed to talk Rom into doing whatever he wanted. “Fine! But you’re paying!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Shuu hesitated as he looked at the blinking turn counter on the crane machine. “You’re not going to use your last go?”

Rom shook his head. “Leave it. Maybe whoever uses it will have better luck than me.”

He walked out of the arcade holding his newly won prize in one arm and the real thing hanging off the other. Still, there was one good thing about Shuu taking him out for dinner – it might make up for all the money he’d spent on the damn game…


End file.
